Parabon Watchman™Sensor Placement Optimization

Optimize sensor placement to cover as much area with as few
cameras as possible, in urban environments or rocky terrain.

Watchman refines the placement of 10
sensors to maximize coverage (in red) of a San Jose city block.

Watchman uses Evolutionary Computation techniques and the
power of the Frontier Grid Platform to optimize the placement of
sensors for coverage over a user-specified area of interest, in an
urban or rural environment, based on building and terrain data. It is
an excellent example of several Frontier technologies. Watchman is a
"mashup" of Frontier
Grid Services and Google™ Maps, with 3D models
provided by PLW
Modelworks. It employs evolutionary algorithms from Parabon's Origin™
Evolutionary SDK. And, it runs as a Frontier
Dashboard application, which is available from any computer
with a web browser.

By performing line-of-sight analysis in a fully
three-dimensional (3D) environment, Watchman can determine which areas
of the environment are within the fields-of-view of one or more cameras
or other sensors, and locate precisely where coverage "gaps" occur.
Watchman then uses powerful search techniques based on Evolutionary
Computation (EC), including a variety of Genetic Algorithms able to
efficiently locate near-optimal solutions: the golden needles in a
haystack of possibilities. In particular, Watchman employs EC
techniques specifically adapted for use in a grid environment, such as opportunistic
evolution, enabling the search to be carried out
by dozens or hundreds of computers in parallel without wasting any time.

Thanks to the flexible nature of the algorithms underlying the
Watchman technology, scenarios can be endlessly customized to fit
specific needs. Complex and varied sensor models may be used, arbitrary
environments and geographic regions may be utilized, rules governing
sensor placement and target coverage can be tweaked and customized,
goals such as target coverage may be enhanced in order to search for
exactly the answers you need.

At the same time, since Watchman runs as
a Frontier Dashboard application, with an easy-to-use interface, a user
may invoke analyses and view results from any computer with a web
browser, without requiring the installation of specialized software.
And, like all Frontier applications, Watchman can take advantage of the
computational resources within an organization on their own Frontier
Enterprise Grid or run online on the Parabon
Computation Grid. It's a powerful application and a powerful
example of what is possible with Frontier.